Most modern software is sharpware, it hurts to use. I dream of a future where cozyware reigns and we can let our guards down when using computers. Today, however, that’s not remotely the case.

We’re at war. You nab your phone to say hi to your mom and suddenly wake up from watching AI waifus for two hours. Drastic times require drastic measures.

Here’s a list of advanced techniques I tried and use myself to defend my attention in the age of distraction. Some are very obvious but most people still don’t do them: I’ll add some practical tips to make it easier for you to try them out.

TL;DR: Techniques

  1. Don’t take your phone to bed
  2. Disable all notifications
  3. Avoid “smart” objects
  4. Delete social media apps from your phone
  5. Use a second phone for work
  6. Schedule app blocking
  7. Batch email and messaging time

1. Don’t take your phone to bed

Easier said than done. Buy an analog alarm clock. It’ll take some weeks to adjust yourself to the inconvenience of setting up the alarms without looking at your Google Calendar. With time, you’ll develop the habit of looking at your calendar when you plug your phone for the night. Resist the temptation of taking your phone to bed “just to set up the alarm”. If you’re a creature of habit and wake up every day at the same time, good for you: this technique will be even easier to adopt.

I hope this goes without saying but also, don’t take your fucking laptop to bed.

2. Disable all notifications

I’ve written about this before, but I don’t think many people actually do this. It bears repeating: notifications were a neat idea in the 00s, but app developers abuse them. I for one block absolutely all notifications and keep my phone in noisy mode. This means when someone calls me (which, honestly, happens rarely), I can pick up. I ask my family and closest friends to give me unscheduled calls when they want to talk.

3. Avoid “smart” objects

Having smart objects is clever. You can configure them how you want, add rules, automate stuff. But clever is often the enemy of wise.

Even in the theoretical best cases where it “just works” (I’ve yet to see that), you’re inviting a foreign demon to your home. Do you really want to trust a company’s employees with admin privileges over atoms in your most intimate space?

Avoid smart objects like the plague. Analog offline-only objects may not be smart, but they are kind.

4. Delete social media apps from your phone

Social media apps are addictive by design. They are relentless attention factory-farming. My honest recommendations are more brutal: delete your social media accounts if you can. But I couldn’t delete all of mine yet, so I accept it’s very hard.

In order of increasing aggressiveness:

  • Log out of social media on your phone, to add friction.
  • Uninstall social media apps from your phone.
  • Take 1 month breaks.
  • Log out of your social media accounts on your laptop.
  • Delete your social media accounts.

I understand those may sound too extreme for most readers. Consider at least uninstalling them from your phone to recover your idle time for daydreaming, reflection, retrospective, or just plain boredom.

5. Use a second phone for work

I understand not everyone can afford this. If you do, however, consider physically separating your work and personal digital lives. I found having a separate phone number and device is totally worth the cost. I only give my work phone to work-related contacts, and a work problem can’t jump to my face when I’m messaging my mom, for example. Again, you should let people know that they can call you if there’s a real emergency.

6. Schedule app blocking

Many people are happy using time-control features like Screen Time on iOS and Digital Wellbeing on Android. You’ll note, however, that while limiting the total time you spend on certain apps can be useful, it still does not prevent you from losing focus. Consider a day where you “only” used Instagram for 60 minutes… but distributed into 5-minute chunks every hour. Does that sound like a win? The solution I found is app scheduling✨.

In your laptop, it’s better to use browser extensions instead of system-wide blocker apps—this way you can more granularly control blocking. For example, I use Brave for personal stuff, and Chrome for work stuff, so I can block whatsapp web for my personal number from 9-5pm but keep access to my work whatsapp.

I’m happily using AppBlock on Android along with their Brave/Chrome extensions, but there’s plenty of other options such as UnDistracted, StayFocusd and FocusGuard. Some friends recommend one sec and Dumb Phone for iOS.

What I like about AppBlock is that when the block-mode is disabled (be it manually or via schedule), blocked tabs automatically revert to the original websites. Other extensions didn’t and I had to remember which tab was which, very frustratingly.

Try AppBlock, or let me know why you prefer another solution.

7. Batch email and messaging time

Once you’ve tamed social media, notifications, and smart objects, the most distracting software components you’ll use are email and messaging (iMessage, Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.).

What I’m trying today is batching them in two blocks every day. Later, I plan to do email and messages only once per day. End goal: Email once a week, messages once per day. A man can dream…

In any case, this is not a specific technique, but a reminder that once you remove all obvious distractions (social media, notifications, and smart objects), you should think carefully about email and messaging. I’m still learning on this one.

Final Words

  1. Don’t take your phone to bed
  2. Disable all notifications
  3. Avoid “smart” objects
  4. Delete social media apps from your phone
  5. Use a second phone for work
  6. Schedule app blocking
  7. Batch email and messaging time

Hope you can implement at least some of these ideas. They’ve brought me noticeable improvements in peace of mind and focus.

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Further Learning and Resources

Acknowledgments

Cover photo by MidJourney. Thanks to “The Post-singularity Club” crew for the conversations that inspired this post.

Thanks to Ale for the “say hi to mom” -> “watching AI waifus for two hours” joke, which I stole.

Thanks to Lucas for the iOS blocking app recommendations.

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